This past weekend I had the distinct honor of assisting for another wedding pre-reception. Here in farm country, when a farm family hosts a wedding, they hold the actual wedding in the early afternoon, and then the reception occurs later in the evening. The entire point of this process originally started because farm families still had chores to be seen to- cows still needed to be milked and fed and all that goes with running a farm. There has always been the dilemma though of what to do with guests during those several hours in between. More and more, I’ve seen the idea of a pre-reception pop up, and I think it’s a wonderful idea for when there is a large amount of time between wedding and reception. Light nibbles to satisfy the guests area must, and of course, the beverages are free-flowing and ample.
For this pre-reception, I took care of preparing food and setting it up while the family was at the wedding, and for my part, I also came up with three appetizers to serve as well. One was a shrimp salad in phyllo cups, one was a cracker dip and the third was from the newest issue of Cooking Light magazine.
Beef Teriyaki Crisps with Wasabi Mayonnaise attracted my attention upon my first flip through this issue. It looked deceptively simple, and I had been looking for the perfect recipe to incorporate some beef into the pre-reception. (Farm family, you know, beef=happy people.) I determined this recipe would be just the thing, only I originally planned to adapt it a bit.
I made the beef as written. I followed the marinade recipe, only I used about 3 pounds of flank steak instead of the 1/2 a pound called for. The marinade was still plenty for the amount of beef. I plopped the beef and marinade into a zipper bag and popped it into the fridge overnight, tossing the bag everytime the fridge was opened.
It was the wasabi mayo where I gave pause. Wasabi? I was familiar with wasabi, but here in rural Wisconsin, I thought the wasabi might be just too different to appeal to the masses. I determined I was going to use horseradish instead, but then the more I thought about it, wasabi is not that different from horseradish, and I ended up buying a tube of wasabi. I planned to double the amount of the sauce mixture, so put my ingredients in a bowl and whisked it together. Easy, right? But then I tasted it and was almost blown over. My goodness, this was harsh. The wasabi was nothing like just a hint, it was overwhelming, and I knew I couldn’t serve this to the wedding guests. I thought I could thin it out though, so I decided to add 1 cup of sour cream to the mayo mixture. I whisked that in, and found that much more appealing, and much tamer in heat. I still would have to go easy on the quantity used per bite, but I found I also preferred the texture of my Wasabi Cream to the Wasabi Mayo.
Once my cream was safely placed in a squeeze bottle, I turned my attention back to the beef, which I popped under the broiler to cook, as I hate my grill pan, and the real grill was out of gas. Six minutes per side, and I pulled the steaks out to let rest for about 20 minutes total before slicing up. One sample of the beef, and Andy and I both agreed the marinade was delicious, and we’d be using it again in the very near future. I popped a slice of beef on a rice cracker (found in the Asian aisle at my grocery store), added the Wasabi Cream, and then for kicks I sprinkled on some black sesame seeds. At the last minute, I decided I needed a fresh component as well, and since my chive plant died off this year, I settled for a scattering of fresh parsley. These were little bites of deliciousness.
The flavors and the textures really played off each other well. My only issue was that there was no way mine were going to look anything like the photo in the magazine. I guess I didn’t slice the beef thinly enough, because they certainly didn’t want to curl up on each other. No matter. The guests really enjoyed this appetizer- and I totally see so much potential here. I think the beef and wasabi cream would also make an excellent filling for a lettuce wrap, and the beef itself was so good that we’ll be making it again when in the mood for teriyaki flavors.
I won’t post the recipe here, instead, I will just direct you to the recipe at Cooking Light.com. There you will see the gorgeous picture I was referring to. This was definitely worth the effort- and not near the trouble it looks like it could be. Overall it was incredibly simple to put together and will definitely be repeated.
